Simple Pleasures
by Ladyofthelake13
Summary: How do our favorite nations cope with the stress? Well, the ways are endless. Exactly what it says on the tin.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey, everyone! Welcome to my first story on FFN. In case you haven't looked at the name, I'm Ladyofthelake13. This was partially inspired by a prompt I found on a writing website (Non-Hetalia related, though…) Anyway, I decided to take the idea and make this multi-chap. So, tell me what you think, who you want to see, maybe even come up with some ideas. Except for flamers, any and all criticisms or praises should go into the reviews.**

Painting your nails, be it fingers or toes

Poland was in one of the rare mood where nothing seemed right. Actually, that wasn't quite true. Things were alright by themselves, but there was too much stress from the various meetings and paperwork that had piled up. He honestly wanted to kill someone right now. The next person who said something really was going to get hurt. He probably would have snapped if it hadn't been for a small thing he could do. It was amazing that this hadn't occurred to him before. After making sure his boss wasn't looking, he sat on the floor behind his desk. Being very careful not to stain anything, he carefully wielded the brush on his now naked foot. As they slowly became pretty in pink, the stress faded away and by the end he even managed a smile as he replaced his sock and prepared to once again take on that monster called paperwork.

Reading a good book by a fire

Arthur was having one of those days. You know, the ones where nothing seems to go anything like they're planned. First, his alarm hadn't gone off at the right time and he'd nearly been late for the meeting. Then, Sealand had yet again attempted to be recognized as a nation. Between Francis and his siblings it seemed there was a conspiracy to get on his every last bloody nerve and now he was soaked to the skin. He had set the kettle to boil and changed his clothes. On an impulse he didn't quite understand, he grabbed Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince from his bedside table and brought it out to the chair by the fire. When his tea was finally ready, he had a good sized fire and a book ready to be read. Adding in the tea, it was a nice way to end the day. He settled in and, sipping his tea occasionally, savored the peace and quiet that came so rarely when you were a nation.

**So… should I continue this or no? Was it good, bad, awful? Is there anyone you want to see? I'll try pairings but (warning in advance) I'm not very good at them. PLEASE review! I can't do anything or change anything if I don't know about it. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks, Swissy and Marinoa! :) My very first reviewers. Now, I'm going to add more so you can decide if you like this or not. Unfortunately, I have not yet mastered this and FF seems to not want to save the changes I make, so I'll try to type this all out but be patient! It WILL be there, just not right away. **


	3. Chapter 3

Sorry guys. I guess every chapter is just going to have to be a separate file on my computer to update this.

Thank you to my AWESOME reviewers and I'm really sorry it took this long. We're also preparing for exams and school in general sucks time and energy for stuff.

Anyway, enough of my rambling and let's move on to what I call the America show….

By the way, the bolding in the second one is thoughts. Italics are generally for emphasis.

Getting a surprise meal

America came home after the meeting. That wasn't really odd and as the Hero he had to recharge sometime right? That's why it took him a while to realize something was off. Namely, when he heard his never before used stove top actually… sizzle. As someone was cooking inside his house. At first he ignored it but it was kind of hard to after paranoia had some time to eat away at him. After all, Iggy had left early… he shuddered at the thought that his older brother had snuck _into his house _and was actually attempting to _COOK_ for him again. Iggy could be brilliant (not that he'd ever admit that) but he was really blind about the fact he couldn't cook. At least Alfred had the sense to admit that he couldn't really cook for anyone other than himself. Having the torture of eating whatever English crap Iggy had made forced into him made him tiptoe over to his kitchen and making ready to pounce.

At the last second he noticed the blond hair curl that didn't belong to England at all. Iggy had huge eyebrows but no curling hair. Of course, he realized this fact more than a little too late and instead crashed face first into a wall. Getting up and thinking as to how exactly he'd repair said wall since he was practically broke all the time, he finally got around to the other person in his kitchen.

"Mattie, why are you in my house?"

Matthew looked up from making his pancakes and nearly cracked up. Alfred had a big red mark covering his face from meeting the wall and what with his skin and eye color… well, it was a pretty ironic picture.

"It's been a while since we've gotten together, and no one really knows I'm at the meeting half the time anyway so…" he let trail off with a shrug. He was used to being ignored now. Pretty much his brother, France, and possibly Cuba were the only ones who really knew he existed. He flipped over a pancake and double checked his maple syrup really was there. "This'll be ready in a few minutes."

So that's how the North American brothers actually had a (somewhat) healthy dinner together. They actually enjoyed each other's company. The problem came when they had to decide where they'd meet. Alfred, predictably, wanted to be at McDonald's. Mattie refused to even think about that and instead argued that they were always there; why not do something new like Olive Garden?

And yes, this argument did take at least 3 weeks to end.

Rocking out to Guitar Hero

"Why on Earth would I do that, frog!" Arthur could not imagine anything he would do less than follow through with this. Honestly, he'd rather eat at one of America's diabetes causing grease factories than spend time with the frog.

"Angleteen, you swore when ve made zhis bet you would accept the penalty. Do not make me get Amerique." Francis told him sternly. Arthur had developed a habit of making bets while drunk and then never following through on them later. England had failed to spread l'amour as he claimed he could; therefore he was going to play one of America's games as forfeit. It was only fair. Besides, he'd be spending time with the fantastic Frenchman. Why was he so hesitant?

"You'll need to get him anyway, unless you're blind as well wine lover. It takes at least 4 to play this atrocity." Arthur had tossed over Rockband, which he was correct on. It did take at least 4. However, having been invited over by Matthew more than once, he knew of another similar game that only took 2.

"I believe _you _are blind Arthur. America has more than one game, no?" as he produced Guitar Hero from behind his back.

"What the- How do you—No. I refuse to play any of Alfred's rubbishly produced games. Much less with you."

He started to head out but France had not gotten to the position he had without learning to have a few aces up his sleeves. "Alright, but let it be known that the _great British empire _ran away." He injected as much light contempt as he could. Facing away he still felt the other nation's glare of daggers at his back.

"Who said I ran away? And you have no right to speak, frog, after the number of times I've crushed you."

"Non, I have let you win. That's why I'm glad you have refused to play; I would hate to have to humiliate you in such a fashion after your Beatles." He knew he had his man and let a smirk come onto his face. Sometimes it was entirely too easy to rile Angleteen and yet it was so entertaining to do so.

"Alright, we'll see whose better though it will obviously be me!"

**Like father like son,** He thought as he started the game. **And he wonders where Amerique's pride and naivety come from. **

After a very long bantering, a lot of swearing and mockery of one another the duel had come to an end. Rather oddly, it was an exact tie.

They both looked at one another, sweaty and panting for breath. The moment was broken by America, who chose that moment to come in.

"Hey dudes!" Then, seeing his game system in use and the exact tie and putting two and two together, he grinned his Hero grin and laughed. "Oh! This is sweet. Two old men trying to rock to new music."

He fell to the floor laughing as both glared at him.

"I am NOT old, Alfred. Secondly, knowing this music would make _you _old as well and lastly Francis or I could easily 'destroy' you at this game."

"What? Neither of you could beat me! I'm the frickin' HERO dude!"

Needless to say, Germany was not very pleased to have to drag America, France and England to the meeting the next day after they refused to answer their phones while playing. This was considerable embarrassment to Arthur in particular because he had reverted back to his punkish phase and had to stay like that the entire meeting, as did America.


	4. Chapter 4

Simple Pleasures ch. 4

AN: Guys, I'm so sorry for the delay. Monochrome is just so much easier in general. So, since I'll be away for 2 weeks, here's an update!

Vash was not in a good mood. No one had attempted to take his money or cross his border or anything horrible like that; he just couldn't shake his own bad mood for some strange reason. He'd tried just about everything and it _still_ wasn't letting up. In fact, he discovered numerous reasons for being upset as he tried not to be. He couldn't go out and shoot anything because of his boss, there was nothing to clean, Austria was doing paperwork and he could not for the life of him find his knife. Then he saw something out of the corner of his eye, and at this point it didn't seem any more stupid than anything else….

Roderich Edelstein, otherwise known as Austria, came by Switzerland's later that evening since he was a bit worried at leaving the somewhat violent man to his own devices for several hours. He would never admit this if asked, but he had taken the knives from the house to try and help the frugal man save money he used to constantly replace the wallpaper from where he threw knives into it when bored. Having finally left the other morons to their idiocy he was finally coming by, only to hear a very weird sound. Was that- no, it couldn't be. He had to be hearing things. He had to be.

Creeping around to a window, he found he was NOT hearing things. There really was a popping noise, and it was being made as Vash was popping bubble wrap with the insane ecstasy of a 5 year old child, oddly primal screaming and all. Deeply disturbed, he walked away and could find no words to speak. Absolutely none.

AN: Be very afraid, Austria, be very afraid. You are getting no breaks today.

Still very disturbed at his friend so… oddly happy in that bizarre way, he made his way over to his (now ex) wife's house. If nothing else, he didn't want to return to his own house yet. He didn't bother knocking, Elizaveta was never one to lock the door anyway and it would be pointless to do so and get attacked by a frying pan.

"Elizaveta…." He began before he stopped cold in the doorway.

"Yeah, Roderich?" She panted, just a little out of breath.

"…What are you doing?" There was something spinning around her waist, but it was going around too fast for him to tell what exactly it was. He half-way didn't want an answer.

One of her impish smiles broke through, which meant he really didn't want to know the answer, only the question had already been asked.

"Hula-hooping. Ever heard of it?"

…That he could not dignify with a response. Feeling like this was a day that was not going to be in his favor no matter WHAT he did, he headed home to try and erase the problematic memories by trying to compose a new concerto. He failed miserably.

The awesome Prussia was completely, unawesomely bored. He literally had nothing to do and it wasn't awesome to sit and do nothing all day. The answer to his problem was to annoy or embarrass West, but he couldn't do that either even though he had really good info this time….

_Prussia was coming back from the very slow and unawesome store with more beer when he heard it. Weird, not very right music from his house. He set the beer down on the counter and yelled for his brother. No answer. Creating a one-man manhunt, he soon found the source and about the awesomest blackmail ever at the same time. There was West, tough, overworking, bossy West DANCING. THE. FRICKIN. TANGO! To make it worse for the one who got caught, he was dancing BADLY. What was he supposed to do? He laughed his butt off as his brother blushed; caught in enough surprise he didn't knock his lights out yet embarrassed enough to swear revenge._

At the other end of the house, Ludwig bathed in the peace and quiet that came from his older brother not being obnoxious for once. He smiled wickedly to himself, knowing all too well why it was so. His brother had caught him in a rather embarrassing pleasure of his that was true. He danced even though he sucked; it was a way to relieve stress and just his wiring. The only reason that wasn't publicly known was the fact that HE had some rather powerful blackmail of his own on his "tough" older sibling…

_After another stressful Meeting, several sets of paperwork, preparing for the next Meeting (it was 3 months away, but still…), and preparing to cook supper, he realized his brother wasn't there. Annoyed, he called for him several times and received no reply. He determined his brother wasn't in the house; so logically that meant he was out back in the woods again. Already feeling a headache coming on from what Gilbert could have gotten himself into in the woods alone for hours, he set out to find him. Getting a little lost, he found a path he'd never really noticed before and took it on an impulse he didn't quite understand. Once he reached the clearing, though, he was VERY hard pressed not to crack up laughing. His older brother, who looked down on him for dancing and claimed he was never stressed because stress was unawesome, was standing in the middle of calming nature as the sun set doing yoga. Instead, he took pictures and crept away. He made it pretty clear that if Gilbert was out of line, he would leak said pictures into the nation's social media. _

Ludwig laughed out loud at the memory, then put some of his things away for tomorrow to work on and went to call Gilbert from the basement to go out for their nightly drink.


	5. Chapter 5

Simple Pleasures chapter 5

AN: Hey guys! Sorry this took so long but life has a funny way of interfering with the best of plans. So, to make up, you get to have 2 or 3 people in this chapter, possibly for the same one. So let's get to it!

Alright, it was confession time. Francis would rather die than admit this to anyone, but he did watch shows from Amerique and Angleterre's lands. Even worse, he actually was near religious about watching certain shows. He just could not help himself, particularly since his days were often stressful with being beautiful and all. Such was the case today. Angleterre had rejected his love as if it were something shameful, zhe paperwork was piling to the ceiling and most of it was due tomorrow, and his boss would be coming in the next few days to "check on him". That was never good since his boss was something of a recluse but he couldn't tell for the life of him what he'd done wrong! So in the end he changed into his pajamas and gingerly walked around his den (with said mountain of paperwork he really should be doing right now), and found his remote.

(Time skippage)

"Aw, IGGY!"

"That's not my name, git! Anyway, the frog hasn't called any of us back for hours now so you need to get up to his door and find out why the bloody heck he felt like he could stop responding, Mr. I'm the bloody Hero."

There was a dial tone as Iggy had slammed his phone down again. Well, he was the Hero and it wouldn't be awesome for the Hero to just let someone disappear. He crept around towards the back since he thought he heard voices that way. More importantly, he could hear Canada's dad laughing so it seemed as good a guess as any.

Wait….was that…..no. It couldn't be, he'd heard France mock their TV in front of everyone at the last Meeting. So why would he, who claimed to hate everything in it, be watching what sounded suspiciously like his/Iggy's Kitchen Nightmares? He peeked around the corner to find it WAS his show and France was there watching it. In pajamas that seemed like they weren't his at all. In fact, he was almost 100% sure he'd last seen those at Iggy's house! America was many things, not the least in a situation like this being smart. He discreetly let himself back out after collecting evidence.

France had quite the shock next time there was a Meeting and everyone had seen his little habit of his guilty pleasure TV choices in the pajamas he stole last time Angleterre had invited him over…

"Aniki! Come and play, da ze!"

Japan sighed as he closed his book. Korea-san was at it again and Yao-san had already run to hide up a tree. So once again it fell to him to try and keep Yong Soo under control. Much as he was devoted to his family, it was times like this that made him wish he had never left isolation.

"What do you want, Yong-Soo san?" he asked as patiently as he could once he had found him, which had taken a while since they had a fairly large house so they could all live together.

"Kiku! Have you seen Aniki?"

Japan paused, because he hated to lie but knew that if he told the truth this would just get worse. "No. I think he said something about going to Russia's for some time."

Korea pouted. Now there was no one to play with him! Unless….

"Well then, you'll play with me!"

"Yong-Soo san, we are both far too old to play like little children." Japan thought hard once Korea's face fell. He shouldn't be mean to his younger brother; he really couldn't help being so hyper and after living with North Korea, he would be clingy. Yet he was not really energetic enough to play the way Korea wanted to play. He thought and thought until an idea struck him.

"Okay, Yong Soo. I think I know what we can do until China gets back."

At first Yong Soo was as confused as he had thought he would be. He and Japan didn't do much together because they were so different and Japan was the one who chastised him for the others, but once he figured out it was genuine, he lit up in a way that was surprisingly cute.

"What?"

"I've heard of one of America's films that was to come out soon. We could see if it's playing and if it's not we could find something else." He was slightly excited as well. He had read the Hunger Games and wanted to see America do it justice for once. (He still wasn't quite over a lot of the spy movies that made all the bad guys thugs Japanese ninjas.) Japan and Korea ended up spending an entire day together and doing whatever came to mind. For the first time in a long time, they were finally brothers again.

Ice Cream (only saying so because it happens a bit later in this one)

Hungary sighed as she finished getting ready for bed. While there were downsides to living with Roderich, there were also nice things about it. They were never lovers in the traditional sense, but they were loving to one another. She still missed those little quirks that she had learned while his wife. Like, how he would never take his shoes off until right before going to bed, or how if he had been up late composing in the night she'd wake up to find him in his clothes from where he'd flung himself onto the bed, glasses askew on his face and near comatose until the afternoon. That little curl of his that was always there no matter how many times he tried to gel it down.

She stopped. Why was she thinking about this? They were separated and it was never going to change. The agreement that broke them apart and made Prussia an ex-nation was still in effect and would be for all time. Besides, she thought, he's probably forgotten all about me anyway.

Over in Austria, nothing could be further from the truth. If anything, it was worse for him than Elizaveta. He should've confessed; should've told her how he really felt about her. Then maybe they…..they could have…..no, he was being stupid. Elizaveta would never want him. Not the way he wanted her. Gilbert was the one who had her heart and he couldn't do anything to change it. Besides, why would she go for a snobby aristocrat like him who couldn't fight when Gil could relate her as an equal? He was no solider and never would be. He was weak and not worth the trouble he had brought her. But she was and always would be his first love. His nightmares were made of exactly that; he was Orpheus and she was Eurydice. That he nearly had her back to him as he had always wanted her to be, as his love and bride, for her to be swept back away by that moron. It had killed him to have to stand by and watch them together. But it had made her so happy he didn't have the heart to refuse her. The day they had separated, his own heart had died. Hers didn't even miss a beat. She was probably with the moron right now who'd get to love her like he never did.

Hungary tried to sleep but she kept missing the man she hadn't loved…had she? You couldn't love someone you had to constantly save, could you? She'd had to save Roderich from Gil almost as many times as her heart had beat. But there was just something so cute about the fact that he kept trying, even when he knew he would lose. And the special way he respected her, even with her bad habit of swearing and having ice cream before bed, not even getting too upset when she spilled and got it on their sheets. She wasn't perfect; maybe she'd been harsh on Roderich. It wasn't exactly his fault he'd grown up as an aristocrat who couldn't really fight. He tried, but he couldn't really change who he was. What the hey, she wasn't going to bed any time soon anyway, she might as well ring him up. He was probably composing anyway.

As Austria plunked out more notes on the piano, trying in vain to keep that beautiful warrior out of his mind, his phone vibrated in his pocket. Taking it out, he figured he had finally gone and lost it. The display claimed it was Elizabeta, which was impossible since she wouldn't be calling him for anything. Not with Prussia ready to claim her vital regions. "Hello?"

"Roderich. I didn't interrupt anything did I?" Auditory hallucinations of her voice. How could she not know that that voice was the one he had wanted to hear all along say his name?

"Nein. Vhy are you calling so late, though?"

Elizabeta on the other end was ridiculously nervous. She had gone into battles where she could have died less scared than this. This had been a stupid idea, what she had planned out before calling. Why would he meet her anywhere? She had hurt him too much and was nowhere near the lady he deserved.

"Um, I know this'll sound kind of crazy, but…" she faltered, not really sure what was about to fill in that blank. Either her idea of being alone with him or the fact that she was actually in love with him.

"What?" Roderich hardly dared to breathe, and his voice sent shivers down her spine.

"Would you…" she steadied her nerves and blurted out, "Would you come and get some ice cream with me?" Only now did she feel like such a fool. She didn't even know if America's franchises were open at this time of night around her. The long pause on the other end of the line didn't exactly help either.

"I know it was stupid, and that you probably have no way to get here," she managed to babble for several more minutes before,

"Ja. I vill be there within 20 minutes or so." UGH! He had already hung up so she couldn't exactly call him. To make this worse, the only thing she found to wear was one of Gil's old shirts from a time he'd gone to her place drunk when Ludwig had kicked him out and a beat up pair of jeans she hadn't worn in who knew how long. She'd sent her good dresses (all 3 of them) to be dry cleaned earlier today and they wouldn't be here until tomorrow. Well, she didn't have much choice and since that shirt was a T, it meant that if she turned clumsy and managed to spill ice cream on herself (wouldn't be the first time), that she could just throw the ratty thing away. Her radio started playing Shontelle, who was surprisingly accurate about the whole T-shirt thing. Since she couldn't find anything else, she layered Gil's slightly thicker one over one she had grabbed from Roderich's closet from when they were married. She still was amazed he had ANY sort of casual wear since he usually did up his cravat and suit but she had seen for herself that he did.

Roderich could hardly believe this was real. He was picking up Hungary and then they'd be doing something together….alone. He didn't want to be too formal so he had reluctantly traded in what he normally wore for some long forgotten pants and T-shirt. It was odd after not wearing them for so long, even more odd when he had to drive like that. He had chosen silence at first, but now that he was closer his nerves were too electrified for that. So he found what station he could understand and left it there. Hmm, this was accurate. For him anyway, he didn't know about Hungary.

Both radios were playing Stupid Cupid by Mandy Moore.

Both thought it was right, for different reasons. For Roderich, because he was so deeply in love with this girl it was pathetic and making him into a lovesick fool, which he didn't really want to remedy. She just made him do things that no sane man would.

For Elizabeta, because she was now getting picked on by Cupid about Roderich and he really seemed to taunt her to go and kiss a man she wasn't even supposed to see in the first place. A man who'd mixed her up from the day they had met and still did. He'd be cool and distant but then suddenly help her carry her things to and from the Meeting or blush if she caught him looking at her.

So, to keep my AusHun from becoming a novel, the rest was fairly uneventful. As predicted, Hungary managed to spill ice cream on herself and Austria helped as much as he could to try and get the stain out. In the end they threw out the shirt to find they now wore matching ones.

Cupid sucked. As he took her home, she realized Roderich had some of his strawberry ice cream as a mustache still. So as they stood awkwardly on her front porch, talking about nothing in particular, she took that off for him. With her lips.

AN: Sorry! I like AusHun more than most couplings in this fandom. Please don't kill me! That was just really fun to write.

"


End file.
